BLOG TOUR REVIEW & GIVEAWAY - The Space Between

For my New Adult Mondays post today, I'm pleased to be opening the tour for Victoria H. Smith's new adult contemporary romance, The Space Between. Read on for my review, check out the other tour stops, and don't forget to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a signed copy of The Space Between, a The Space Between necklace and a The Space Between keychain (U.S. only)!

The Space Between, by Victoria H. Smith
Published March 2, 2013
Publisher:  Createspace
Format: e-book - provided by author and ATOMR Tours
Genre:  new adult contemporary romance
To Buy:  Amazon

Rating:  3.5 STARS

(From Goodreads) When Drake started the night at his father’s campaign fundraiser, he never imagined he’d end it being conned into buying drugs on the West Side. Losing high-stakes poker has its consequences, but he’d repeatedly face them just to hear Lacey Douglas sing. Drake sees Lacey light up the stage, and he has to have her. But his intentions for being on her side of town turn out to be the reason he can’t.

Chicago native Lacey has dreams of the opera, but life has its obstacles. Lacey has come to know her hardships as part of living in the real world and accepts them fully. When Lacey meets the intense and invigorating Drake, a fire is lit inside her, unleashing those dreams again.

Two paths that should have never crossed prove to create the exact pairing the other needs. But when their worlds take time to catch up, everything they have is tested. Finding the space between the two sides that challenge them will be hard, but it’s the only place that will keep them together.

To date, I've read... well, A LOT of books in the new adult genre. I guess you could say that it's become my new favorite thing. There's a lot of elements that make them all very similar to each other - a "bad boy," a big problem, a fast and furious romance. After reading Victoria H. Smith's The Space Between, I realized something else they all have in common. The main characters are white. In The Space Between, the main characters are not. It was a refreshing and eye-opening change from the norm.

Drake was my favorite character. He's Asian (Korean, to be exact). He was adopted as a baby by a woman who wanted a child and her politically-minded husband. He was raised in a very affluent home, never wanting for anything except for time, attention and affection from his parents. I liked Drake because he was a go-getter. He wasn't happy with the crap hand life dealt him, so he made lemonade out of lemons. He sees something he wants, he goes after it. And, despite lacking a lot of love growing up, when it crosses his path, he knows enough to recognize it for what it is and do all that he can to keep it. Rock on, dude.

Lacey is half black and half white. She lives in the ghetto with her sick mother and works at a theater to make ends meet. She has nothing, but she is loved by her family and her friends. Lacey is the exact opposite of Drake. She's developed pretty thick skin because of her circumstances, which is good since, when she gets a job as an assistant in Drake's home, his family and friends don't make it easy on her.

I really appreciated Victoria Smith's attempt at creating a non-traditional romance. Despite the big differences between Drake and Lacey (and, I'm not just talking about race), I believed their relationship. It was sweet and refreshing and hot and sexy. It was fraught with problems and rife with complications. Would it be a good book without those?

The one thing I would've like to see more of was Lacey's singing. It's what drew Drake to her in the first place, then wasn't mentioned too much after that. I thought it might be a major plot point, but other than Lacey having to decide whether to go to Paris to be in an opera there, and her singing one time for Drake, it wasn't talked about. I thought this aspect of her character could've been exploited a bit more.

The Space Between is a new kind of new adult novel. It's well worth a read!

This blog tour is sponsored by ATOMR Tours. Check out the tour schedule for The Space Between for more reviews, guest posts, and interviews.

About the Author

Victoria H. Smith has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She puts it to good use writing romance all day. She resides in the Midwest with her Macbook on her lap and a cornfield to her right. She often draws inspiration for her stories from her own life experiences, and the twenty-something characters she writes give her an earful about it.

In her free time, she enjoys extreme couponing, blogging, reading, and sending off a few tweets on Twitter when she can. She writes new adult fiction romance in the sub-genres of science fiction, urban fantasy, and contemporary, but really, anywhere her pen takes her she goes.

Social Media links: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway

Now is your chance to enter a giveaway to win:

(1) Signed Print Copy of The Space Between – US Only
(2) The Space Between Necklaces and (5) The Space Between Key Chains – US Only

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